Rabbi Trainin was one of the few known to have received semichah from the Ohr Sameiach
Rabbi Baruch Shalom Trainin was born in Dvinsk in 1882 to a prominent Chabad family. His relative Rav Shmuel Mechel Trainin was a close follower of the Rebbe Rashab of Lubavitch and served as his representative in St. Petersburg. While Baruch Shalom was educated in Lithuanian yeshivos, he maintained his lifelong affiliation with Lubavitch.
When Baruch Shalom reached marriageable age, the two rabbinic giants of Dvinsk, Rav Meir Simcha HaKohein (the Ohr Sameiach) and Rav Yosef Rosen (the Rogatchover Gaon) each pushed matches they thought would be the best fit for the budding scholar. Rav Meir Simcha won, and Baruch Shalom wed Heniah, the daughter of Rabbi Meir Levin.
Rabbi Trainin was one of the few known to have received semichah from the Ohr Sameiach. The document attests to the fact that he was “a baki in Shas Bavli and Yerushalmi.” (The American philanthropist and Torah scholar Dov Ber Manischewitz once tested him on all of Shas. For two hours, he cited lines in Shas, and Rabbi Trainin could recite each line in its entirety by heart.) Eventually he joined the beis din of Rav Meir Simcha.
Rav Meir Simcha served as sandek when Rabbi Trainin’s son Isaac was born, though in a nod to his Chabad lineage, the child was enrolled in the local Lubavitch cheder, next door to the Rogatchover’s home. Rabbi Trainin’s wife forged a close relationship with the Rogatchover’s second rebbetzin.
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